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Because you are So Uppity!

One more sign of how much “better” things are getting while our government laughingly imagines that Americans can’t wait to get bank credit to buy another house and a new car:

LEWISTON, Pa. — The growing ranks of unemployed Americans are turning to the traditional fallbacks — retail, restaurants, customer service — to ride out a rough economy. The bad news is job openings there are growing scarce, too.

Widespread “trading down” is sparking a fight for low-wage jobs that employers once struggled to fill. Mark Hall, 24 years old, of Alexandria, Pa., lost his $12-an-hour gig as a videographer when his employer folded and is now looking for anything to make ends meet.

And as our elected officials prattle about how every American should be able to get a four-year degree, whether they have any brains or not:

“Finding a regular job, not even in my field, is very challenging,” said Mr. Hall. “Even working for Lowe’s, I’d settle for that, and I have a four-year degree.”

…….snip……

Despite what objectives they may have put atop their resumes, when asked to describe the work they really wanted, the job seekers largely had the same goal: “I’ll take anything right now.”

In many cases, that desperation means that even educated workers must trade down to jobs below their potential and with lower pay. That results in painful, long-term effects, from hurting their own career advancement to displacing those with less education or experience.

So basically, it won’t be long before you need that freshly dumbed down four- year degree just to sell hardware at Lowe’s.

All of this while we anticipate yet another major hike in the cost of heat and light with the Bomb Shelter and Y2K scare of the 21st Century known as Global Warming. But not to worry. Homeless people don’t have to worry about utility bills.

But don’t worry, Comrades. Nancy, Harry, Tim and Barack are going to fix everything. They are going to fix you good.

On a “Lighter note”, it does look as though The Onion was right. Promises kept. Thanks for reminding me, DE.

Using the AIG rendition of the social idiot who shows up at the party wearing a plastic groucho nose, eyebrows and glasses prop, AIG tore down their headquarters sign this weekend and unceremoniously, if not surreptitiously, changed their company name to AIU–although IOU seems to be a more appropriate name.

No kidding. You can’t make this shit up. Apparently, in the future, we won’t recognize who they are. Let’s call it the Wall Street rendition of the witness protection program.

NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) – Workmen rolled up their sleeves at American International Group Inc (AIG.N) this weekend to take down the most prominent sign at the downtown Manhattan offices of the embattled insurer that has become the scorn of America.

A spokesman said the company had decided to replace the large AIG sign — outside the entrance to its property-casualty offices — as part of its plan to change that operation’s name to AIU Holdings Ltd.

The move is designed to “distinguish these well-capitalized businesses from AIG,” said a second spokesman.

In what is probably the closest thing to a truthful remark from AIG’s AIU’s Fed-Selected CEO we have heard in a month, the man finally admitted what a thieving, morally-bankrupt sack of crap this company truly is.

“I think the AIG name is so thoroughly wounded and disgraced that we’re probably going to have to change it,” Liddy told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee last Wednesday.

Funny, I kind of get the feeling that the move is to Disappear the name “AIG”. I am sure they are all hoping that angry mobs won’t be able to find their thieving asses any longer.

I get the distinct feeling that in the near future, Geithner, Paulson and Bernanke may be borrowing three sets of those groucho glasses. Barring that possibility due to a run on purchases of these props caused by the rest of their Goldman-Sachs and other Wall Street friends, they can always temporarily go for the bag over the head routine until novelty companies restock. The photo above is a custom-made bag earmarked for Chris Dodd, whose wife seems to have had previous employment ties to AIGan AIU-owned business.

Can you even imagine giving unchecked power to this character who clearly works for unnamed people who aren’t even remotely interested in the taxpayers or the citizens of the USA? And can you even imagine a President of a DEMOCRACY thinking this is a good idea? Or the Congress of the USA even listening to this horse shit, much less considering it?

Geithner argued for such authority during the House Financial Services Committee’s hearing on the handling of bonuses paid to executives at American International Group.

“As we have seen with AIG, distress at large, interconnected, non-depository financial institutions can pose systematic risks just as distress at banks can. The administration proposes legislation to give the U.S. government the same basic set of tools for addressing financial distress at non-banks as it has in the bank context,” Geithner told the committee.

“The proposed resolution authority would allow the government to provide financial assistance to make loans to an institution, purchase its obligations or assets, assume or guarantee its liabilities and purchase an equity interest,” he said.

President Obama said later Tuesday that he hopes “it doesn’t take too long to convince Congress” that it should approve the new powers.

A Constitutional lawyer, President Obama? Really? Aside from the fact that Tim Geithner has appeared to screw up everything he touches, and aside from the fact that the Bilderberger Theory is starting to look more real every day, with Tim Geithner in the middle of it, the odor of this idea is extremely foul. Tim Geithner having the utimate power to seize ownership of any business he wants, even if they aren’t using bailout money is the antithesis of capitalism. Is that the idea, wink wink? In China, the government can seize whatever it wants. What is this, the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republic? Is this a joke????? There are millions of immigrants in the USA who LEFT countries and came here to get away from this kind of crap.

This “idea” is an unprecedented assignment of power to Nationalize any American businesses at will—to a man nobody elected, and man who works for a President, and a man who would be virtually an unchecked loose canon, who appears bent on the Nationalization of American Corporations (whether they are in trouble or not!) on behalf of the Republic of Barackistan.

Specifically, the Treasury secretary asked for powers similar to those of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has authority to seize control of banks, take over their bad assets and sell good ones to competitors.

“AIG highlights broad failures of our financial system,” Geithner told the House Financial Services Committee. “We must ensure that our country never faces this situation again.”

…snip…

Geithner made it clear he believes the treasury secretary should be granted unprecedented power, after consultation with Federal Reserve Board officials, to take control of a major financial institution and run it. The treasury chief is an official of the administration, unlike the FDIC, which is an independent regulatory agency.

The FDIC is an independent agency. They do not have the authority to seize banks that are not in trouble. The Secretary of the Treasury works for the President of the United States, and serves at that President’s pleasure………or, in this case, somebody’s pleasure. And he wants authority to take any business he wants and Nationalize it?

More and more you have to ask yourself……..who the hell IS this guy who has the arrogance and audacity to demand this kind of power? And what kind of President thinks it’s a great idea?????

How many of you would hire Tim Geithner to run anything, much less give him unchecked and unaccountable power to take over any business he wants, whether they want him there or not? Anybody?

I’m a little concerned,” House Minority Leader John Boehner told reporters during a press conference. “This is an unprecedented grab of power and before that occurs, there ought to be a real debate about whether we should give that authority to the Treasury secretary.”

House Democratic leaders also showed reservation over supporting the administration’s call for expanded authority.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters Tuesday: “I want to discuss it with a number of people. Obviously one of the issues that Congress is concerned about is the delegation of authority. We are talking about huge sums of money — huge consequences for one individual.”

“At this point in time, I want to look at it more carefully,” he added.

Who do you want to “discuss it with”? Your lobbyist contributors? Thought so. Mr. Hoyer, you are a sellout against the entire concept of Democracy and Free Market and should be run out of Congress on a rail for even treating this like it’s not a totally insane assault upon a Free Market. You should go run for office in China.

Why don’t you Congressional wimps grow some cajones?? You all sound like a bunch of snot-nosed dumb children waiting to ask Mommy what to do next.

How the hell did these people get into to Congress? Any fool can see that this is a power grab of the worst unaccountable and UnAmerican kind. How dumb can they be to even listen to this kind of despot-generating horse crap and dignify it with such a limp answer? They all deserve to lose their powers for the political whores that they are.

My God. No wonder America is falling apart, much to the thrill of its Robber Barons. No wonder more and more States are shoring up their Sovereignty rights.

In our New World, if you saved your own money all of your life, lived within your own means, didn’t buy more house than you could afford and didn’t run up your charge cards to the point where you can’t pay them off, you are scum.

People who buy low and sell high are so irresponsible, right? That’s no longer good business sense. You need to waste your money and for goodness sakes, saving is so Last Century! Debt is where it’s at!

You are particularly scum if you aren’t spending money right now on a new car you don’t need. You’re a big problem because you are responsible and that’s despicable. That’s bad for the economy. No bailout for you! If on the other hand, you bought a new car you can’t pay for, and if you bought a home that you can’t afford and you didn’t bother reading your mortgage contract and are behind in your payments, we are Here For You! This is particularly so if you bought that home at a ludicrously high price. I mean, everything knows that what goes wayyyyyyyy up never comes down, right?

The same applies at work now. If you want to get ahead, you need to do a crappy job. Once you do a perfectly crappy job, you will get a bonus.

Okay here’s the deal. Go to work today and do the crappiest job you can possibly do. Bring your company down if you can, or at least get a running start at it. Because that’s the route to a nice bonus in this New World.

That’s how it works at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. You remember Freddie Mac and his sister Fannie Mae, right? The two companies that were protected by congress while they headed for the tank and started the downward spiral of America’s economy? Well while we are all in a tizzy over AIG, guess who else is coming to the Bonus Dinner with the blessings of Congress?

WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company.

Rival mortgage finance company Freddie Mac is planning similar awards, but has not yet reported on which executives will benefit.

The two companies, which together own or back more than half of the home mortgages in the country, have been hobbled by skyrocketing loan defaults. Fannie recently requested $15 billion in federal aid, while Freddie has sought a total of almost $45 billion.

Fannie Mae disclosed its “broad-based” retention program in a recent regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company was only required to disclose the amounts for the top-paid executives, who will pocket at least $470,000 on top of their base salaries.

The bonuses are more than double last year’s, which ranged from $200,000 to $260,000. Another round of bonuses ranging from $330,000 to $429,000 are planned for next February

That’s right folks. If you are a big shot executive at Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, all you have to do is stay employed by your disaster of a company which had to be seized by the government, and you get your bonuses! You did such a good job as doing a terrible job, that we don’t want to lose you!

A company spokesman declined further comment.

There’s a surprise.

Don’t worry, everybody. Congress is looking out for you! And they are keeping you really busy hearing about all of this thievery too. Kind of makes you wonder what else they are up to that we don’t even know about. Look here. Don’t look there.

Hey! We haven’t heard from President Obama the past few days have we? Most of the time, we can’t shut him and his administration up, except once in awhile, when everything suddenly goes quiet. Interesting, that.

I think our boardie Mary sums all of this up best:

In true Alinsky fashion, the Globalists have provided us with a little skirmish at point A while they are waging the main battle at point B.

America is being Cluster F*cked daily, folks. It’s time for a lot more than tea bags. It’s time some hide is figuratively skinned. It’s time for prison and it’s time for seizure of personal assets.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) – Some top recipients of U.S. bailout money owe the federal government more than $220 million in unpaid taxes, a U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday.

Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia who heads the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, said 13 bailed-out companies owe the federal government taxes. Two of them owe more than $100 million each.

Lewis said the firms, which he did not name, signed statements at the time of receiving federal aid stating that they owed no federal taxes.

“It is a disgrace. The American people are fed up… and they’re not going to take it anymore,” Lewis told a hearing to examine the oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

It’s not a disgrace. It’s a Cluster F*ck and we all know it. And it has to stop. We expect it to stop. It will stop. This bailout party must come to an end. People must go to jail. Money must be recouped. Not later. Now.

Somebody has been walking away with Trillions of dollars we don’t even have. Some small group of serious thieves has raped the wallets of a minimum of two future generations using dying, pillaged corporations as money launderers for each other. AIG gets billions and the first check they write is to Goldman Sachs of Bernanke and Geithner Board of Directors fame. Why is that?

Nobody wants to work for Geithner it seems. They drop out like flies. Why is that? Geithner hired CitiGroup’s Economoic Advisor. Why is that? Who would hire the loser-economic adviser of a losing company? And why is it that these companies that owe millions of back taxes haven’t been hounded by the IRS, Mr. Geithner? And since the IRS is under your charge, why is it you didn’t know that their disclosures regarding taxes were a lie? If one of us owed ten cents to your IRS, we would be hounded. Of course, not paying taxes after receiving repeated warnings is no new thing to you, Mr. Geithner, is it? What job is that that you are “Just the right guy for” again?

Somebody in the US Treasury is enabling this. The money is flowing to these places like a river, in one door, out the other. Somebody must answer for this. Bernie Madoff is beginning to look like a petty candy store thief next to what is happening here.

There are plenty of questions and it’s time somebody asked them. Rep. Lewis has started that ball rolling, bless his heart.

Lewis’ subcommittee looked at the top 23 TARP recipients and found that more than half owe unpaid federal income taxes. One unidentified company owed $112.75 million in unpaid taxes from 2006 and 2005,according to the subcommittee’s research. Another company that received government funds owed $101.8 million dating back to before 2004.

We appreciate your revealing information Rep. Lewis. We really do bless you for it. But the public has a right to know the names of these companies and the pigs who are raping us. This is the money of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Americans!

If these companies lied on their tax disclosures in order to receive TARP money, this means somebody committed fraud, a federal offense. There must be indictments and people must go to jail. But not before we squeeze every dime of our money out of their thieving hides in the most painful of ways, up to and including all of their personal assets.

Enough is enough. And then some. America is leaving its slumber period now. Hubris will do that to people. Thank God. Thus, we begin the pitchfork and torch phase we have seen over AIG. This has just begun. America is being torn down from within. It’s time to lock the Treasury TARP money down. No more bailouts. The heads must start to roll for all the public to see these shameless faces go down in shame.

Rep. Lewis: You GO guy!

Hey Barney! You gonna join in or what? Because somebody needs to check out those nice fat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonuses that are being handed out as we speak to the Big Shots from that loser corporation too. We’ll make that YOUR assignment, because while the country is in an uproar over AIG bonuses, the rest of the Band Plays On under the radar.

And Chuck: Yeah. We DO care. America is just waking up and stretching. Soon, the coffee will be perked and suddenly, everybody is going to be moving around, wondering how it is that our House and Senate let this all happen. That means you too, Chuck.

Folks, an index of these thieving companies that took our money can be found here.

Here are the top 23 recipients as of the date of that index (late January, 2009). Unless this list has changed drastically in totals recently, half of these companies, according to Rep Lewis, are delinquent in more than $220 million in IRS taxes.